NFC North Daily: Hot Links for May 7th, 2012

A relatively quiet weekend for the North, but today is potentially huge for the Vikings, as their stadium referendum faces potentially its final vote.

We'll give you our reaction to whatever news surfaces—hopefully good news.

Minnesota Vikings

Here are a few of the early stories revolving around today's vote.

The pro-stadium folks rallied the troops this weekend. Jared Allen made an appearance at Mall of America, while Governor Dayton was out drumming up support as well. 

Currently, the proposal doesn't have the support of House Speaker Kurt Zellers—the Pioneer Press looks at how that makes things more complicated.

In non-stadium news (oh yeah, that does exist) Chip Scoggins of the Star Tribune has a look at new Vikings rookie Rhett Ellison while Dan Wiederer talks about the attention to new rookies are getting at mini-camp—from the veterans.

Chicago Bears

Chicago Tribune writer Dan Pompei has a piece touting Shea McClellin's versatility. Pompei points out McClellin can play—and succeed—at either defensive end or linebacker, something I've been saying since the draft.

Brandon Marshall's had issues off the field, and maybe he's decided there is some truth to the old saying "idle hands are the Devil's plaything," because he's guest writing at the Sun-Times.

I don't know that he's getting a second career going, but he writes a great piece to give you a little insight into how players are viewing the effects of head trauma.

Green Bay Packers

Zach Kruse of CheeseheadTV writes about the improvement on defense, but says there are still question marks at safety. 

Press-Gazette writer Rob Demovsky takes a closer look at first-round draft pick Nick Perry.

Bob McGinn writes about some potential front office promotions. The more successful a team is, the more they have to decide how much they want to pay to keep their staff.

Detroit Lions

Anwar Richardson looks at five Lions players ready to take a leap forward in 2012.

Over at The Detroit News, Chris McCosky wrote a powerful column about his own battles with depression and the ignorance around it.

If you don't read anything else in these links, read that one.